SEEDING CHANGE: POWER, BIODIVERSITY, AND THE FUTURE OF FOOD
Seeds are the foundation of our food and agriculture systems, embedding issues such as genetic diversity, cultural heritage, and ecological potential. Yet in an era of rising corporate control and consolidation, seed systems have become increasingly commoditized and disconnected from community control. Learn from community leaders and innovators on how they are preserving seed sovereignty while promoting biodiversity.
Nate Kleinman
Co-Founder & Co-Director, Experimental Farm Network
Nate Kleinman is a farmer, plant breeder, activist, organizer and co-founder/co-director of The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative (EFN), a Philadelphia-based non-profit organization founded in 2013. He is also a founding member of Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA), serves on the board of the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) and the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library (PHSL) and is a former board member of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ). Nate lives and farms on Lenape land in Elmer, New Jersey. Through EFN's participatory plant breeding work with perennial staple crops, he aims to help shift our farming system from being a major driver of climate change to being a weapon against it.
Feather Smith
Ethnobiology Manager, Cherokee Nation
Feather Smith has worked for Cherokee Nation since 2007. She worked as a tour guide in the Diligwa Village at the Cherokee Heritage Center until 2015. She then served as a cultural biologist before becoming the current Ethnobiology Manager with the Secretary of Natural Resources Office. As the Ethnobiology Manager, she oversees the Cherokee Nation Seed Bank, and helps care for The Cherokee Nation Heirloom Garden and Native Plant Site. Feather has a Bachelor of Science in Fish and Wildlife Biology from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK.
Ira Wallace
Worker/Owner, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Ira Wallace is a worker/owner of the cooperatively managed Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (www.SouthernExposure.com) which offers over 700 varieties of open-pollinated heirloom and organic seeds selected for flavor and regional adaptability. Ira serves on the boards of the Organic Seed Alliance, and the Virginia Association for Biological Farming. She is a member of Acorn Community which farms over 60 acres of certified organic land in Central Virginia. She also writes about heirloom vegetables and seed saving for magazines and blogs including Mother Earth News, Fine Gardening and Southern Exposure. She was named a 2019 Great American Gardener by the American Horticultural Society and is a 2023 James Beard Foundation Leadership Award Finalist. She is author of the Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast. Her new state specific book series including, Grow Great Vegetables in Virginia, are available online and at booksellers everywhere. Ira is currently working on creating an African Diasporic Seed Collection.